Question:  I can't find Fire Retardant Rope. Will your Fire Retardant Safety Strapping work?

Answer: It's not an easy task finding fire retardant rope, according to a number of our customers.  While we do not offer traditional ropes in Fire Retardant versions, we have a series of Safety Strapping products available in FR that can often be used.  Our most popular is a ¾" polyester strap with a 2950 pound break strength.  One of our largest customers has tested this strap to pass the FAR 25.853a FR standard, which is the one required for interior items in airplanes.  Stocked coils are ¾" x 250' and ¾" x 1650'.

The Safety Strapping can be used as a substitute for rope for many applications.  We actually designed it to take the place of steel banding, but those looking for Fire Retardant Ropes have found this to be pretty handy!

Question:  What is the difference between a geotextile, a geomembrane, and a geosynthetic?

Answer:  The major difference is permeability.  A geotextile is any permeable textile which allows the movement of air, water and fertilizer. It is often used in landscaping projects and civil engineering applications such as dams, airfields, roads and roofs. A geotextile is classified based on the method used to create the "fabric". It can be woven or non-woven plastic fibers or made from a cloth like material. 

The woven geotextiles are fabrics formed by the uniform and regular interweaving of threads or yarns in two directions thus having a visible construction pattern. Woven geotextiles are often used for soil separation, load distribution, reinforcement, drainage and filtration.

Non-Woven geotextiles are felt-like fabrics that have random placement of threads in a mat and bonded by heat-bonding, needle punching, or resin-bonding. Un-like the woven geotextiles, their thread pattern is random without any any visible pattern.  Non-woven geotextiles are often used for soil separation and stabilization, load distribution and drainage- but not for soil reinforcement such as in retaining walls .

Geomembranes are impermeable membranes that are used to line canals, pits, and ponds.  They are a kind of geosynthetic material. 

A geosythetics are man-made materials used to improve soil conditions. They are typically made from "plastics" that are biologically inert and will not decompose from fungal or bacterial action.  Geosythetics purpose in life is to do the following when placed in or on soil:

• Control water pressure to allow drainage
• prevent soil movement
• reinforce soil
• separation/confinement/distribute loads- It can be used in banks, hillsides, roads, alleys etc.

Question:  Why are plastic sheeting prices rising?

Answer:  Bad news friends...North American buyers of polyethylene resin have been hit with yet another per-pound prices increase again in February. This increase was LARGE!  The regional prices have jumped 8 cents since February 1! 

Why such an increase?  Market sources said that production issues arose for both Polyethylene and ethylene feedstock, which influenced the move.  There were planned and unplanned maintenance turnarounds that hurt Gulf Coast petrochemical production, due in part to unseasonably cold temperatures in that region. The regional polyethylene prices are still lower than their mid 2008 peak when crude oil surpassed $140 per barrel (remember that?!). Unfortunately these prices have climbed 50 percent since hitting bottom in late 2008.

What adds insult to injury is that this 8 cent hike comes on the heels of a 4-cent jump in January.

Q:  How Do I decide if I should use a scrim reinforced product or a heavy polyethylene for a vapor barrier?

A:  Both Scrim Reinforced and heavy polyethylenes sheeting can be used effectively as a vapor barrier. If you are concerned with blocking gases such as Methane, Radon, or VOC's (Volitile Organic Compounds) then the best insurance is a sheeting product that is designed specifically for blocking gases. Breakthroughs in polymer technology now make it possible to make a polyethylene film that blocks virtually all of the extremely small particle gasses, like Radon, Methane, and many VOC's, along with water vapor molecules.  To date, our VaporBlock 20 Plus is the only product we know about on the market with the capability to block Radon, Methane and VOC's.  Our engineers claim that it is over 50 times less permeable than typical high performance vapor retarders against Radon, Methane, and harmful VOC's.

Question:  Is 6 mil polyethylene classified as a class 1 vapor retarder? What's the difference between Class 1,2,3 and Class A,B, and C?

Answer:  Some people use Class 1, 2, 3 interchangeably with A,B,C with all the certifications.  In the FR specs, one company calls their test results, which is identical to an ASTM test, class 1, 2, 3, where ASTM classifies theirs as Class A, B, C. 

6 mil Construction/Agricultural Grade Polyethylene does not pass any level of the ASTM E1745 Classifications for underslab varpor retarders in contact with soil or granular fill.  Generally engineered films should be used for this application, so they are made with 100% virgin resins, will not rot, or degrade, and are made to withstand the application.  Of the products we have on the market currently, none of the 6 mil products pass Class A, one has to go to the 10 mil engineered films, like VaporBlock 10 to pass this standard.

Q.  What is the difference between Polyolefin and Polyethylene?

A.  Polyolefin is a material that is made of only carbon and hydrogen atoms. When the Polyolefin molecule is bonded in a more complex manner, then you have a variety of materials made from the polyolefin material. Polyolefin materials such as polyethylene, polypropylene and polybutene have more complex olefin branches than simple polyolefin. 

For example, Polybutene is a liquid polymer used in sealants, synthetic rubber and lubricants.  Polyethylene is used to make products like shrink wrap, and a variety of plastic sheeting products.  Polypropylene is a hard resin used in carpeting, food packaging and electronics. Don't be confused if a plastic sheeting product is referred to as a "polyolefin". Saying it is a polyolefin does not imply it is a superior plastic. After all, now you know that plastic sheeting is made up of Polyolefin.

Q.:  There are so many different vapor barriers (vapor retarders) to chose from. How do I know which one to buy and use?

A.:  TRUTH 1:  No two water vapor retarders are created equal. The vapor retarder you select should be manufactured from high-grade raw materials that are consistent in quality, unlike common construction grades of 4, 6 or 10 mil polyethylene. Construction grade films (known as C&A or visqueen) are typically produced with very low grades of polyethylene resin and a very high percentage of "post consumer" recycled materials. The numerous heat cycles that occur in reprocessing of recycled materials, combined with the varied types of resin used, cause inconsistencies in physical strength and permeability. While this commodity film serves a purpose in temporary construction and agricultural applications, it is not designed to provide ongoing protection against unwanted moisture. Film characteristics such as low strength and poor resistance to decay should be of major concern.

TRUTH 2:  A long-term vapor retarder must maintain life long integrity by resisting decay,attack by moisture, organisms in the soil and chemicals. As mentioned above, beware of vapor retarders manufactured with "post consumer" recycled resins (C&A Poly or Visqueen) which can degrade from chemicals in the soil. Paper laminates can degrade from moisture attack.

TRUTH 3:  Moisture problems associated with a vapor retarder installed under the concrete slab-on-grade are often traced to punctured or torn water vapor retarders. Damage due to construction traffic during installation, can be detrimental to the performance of the vapor retarder. Physical characteristics such as high puncture resistance and tensile strength, along with low-moisture vapor permeability, are vital attributes of a vapor retarder. These physical characteristics are well quantified in ASTM E-1745 and are outlined in this guide.

TRUTH 4:  When specifying a water vapor retarder, designed for use in under concrete slab applications, insist the supplier meets the newest and most stringent ASTM standard, ASTM E-1745 for "Water Vapor Retarders Used in Contact with Soil or Granular Fill Under Concrete Slabs". It assures minimum values are met regarding tensile strength and puncture resistance, along with the maximum allowable water vapor permeance. ASTM E-1745 separates these properties into three performance classes: Class A, B & C.

First, Polyethylene sheeting and a lot of adhesives to not get along well together, so any type of adhesive should be tested for compatibility before any significant area is treated.  If an adhesive is going to have an adverse reaction to the plastic sheeting, this should happen within minutes, and the plastic will be visibly damaged, or even melt.  My number one suggestion for trying to secure these folds to concrete flooring would be double-sided carpet tape.  It is thin, very aggressive, made to adhere to concrete, will withstand the moisture that comes through concrete, and adheres very well to most polyethylene sheeting.  It is also cost effective and won't make a big mess.

Q:  Can I use any construction grade 6 mil plastic sheeting as moisture barrier for wood flooring?

A: This is an excellent question.  It is important to know that not all plastics are created equal.  For instance, that 4 mil and 6 mil Construction grade polyethylene sheeting in the construction aisle is the lowest grade of polyethylene sheeting available on the market at any given time.  It is made from up to 25% post consumer recycled goods, reground resins, and the absolute least expensive resins that can be bought from any source in any location across the globe.  These films are not guaranteed to be pinhole free, and can have quite a few defects that are acceptable in this type of film.  The quality control for this type of film is the lowest in the plastic's industry.  While it has been an acceptable practice to use quite a bit of this type of plastic sheeting in the past as vapor retarders, that has been changing over the  last couple of decades to a very large degree.

Today most experts feel very strongly that engineered films designed specifically for use as vapor retarders should be used as vapor retarders.  These products are made from 100% virgin resins, and have excellent quality control.  Most are tested to a standard called the ASTM E1745, which is the standard for vapor retarders in contact with soil or granular fill used under concrete slabs.  These materials are engineered not to decay in this type of application, whereas most construction grade poly will begin breaking down almost immediately and will have lost most of its structural integrity within 2 years.  How many times have you dug up plastic sheeting in your life that is just destroyed from being buried in the ground?  I know this is a bit off subject here, but the principles are even more important when dealing with vapor retarders for hardwood flooring, which is considered a critical application for vapor retarders.

It makes some difference what part of the country you are in, what kinds of humidity levels are common in your region, whether or not your home has a good quality vapor retarder under the slab, basement, or in the crawlspace.  If you already have an excellent vapor retarder, then the one you use under your hardwood floor is far less critical.  If you are putting a hardwood floor over a damp crawlspace, and use a poor quality vapor retarder, you are  asking for a lot of problems with the hardwood flooring, and will likely suffer problems with buckling, warping, noisy flooring, lots of expansion and contraction, and often finish problems, just to name a few. 

Should you be in an area where Radon is prevalent, or methane, then the use of a barrier with capabilities to retard these gasses becomes important also.  Again these films are engineered to have a very tight cell structure capable of keeping these very small molecules from passing right through the membrane.  These gasses, and to a very large extent water vapor pass quite easily through the cellular structure of common construction grade polyethylene (aka Visqueen).

This is kind of a long answer to your question, but the plastics in the flooring aisle are hopefully engineered to be better vapor retarders than the ones in the construction aisle.  If one wants an even better vapor retarder, then one might want to contact a plastics company specializing in vapor retarders so you can find out which is most appropriate for your application.  The vapor retarder is fairly inexpensive insurance for having a great experience with a hardwood floor as compared with what can be a nightmare experience when the wrong product is used.

By Lee Hinsley, Plastic Sheeting Expert

Q:  I see all over your website you have a lot of fire retardant plastic sheeting. What do you mean by "fire retardant", and how is that possible?

A: Plastic sheeting by nature is highly flammable. This can pose a fire threat where ever it is used. A simple thing as a spark can catch the plastic sheeting on fire. When we add various fire retardant additive packages to the polyethylene, this retards the fire. The plastic will still burn but at a much slower rate, with less heat. Plastic sheeting that is fire retardant just means that a product that was once a significant fire hazard, is now not such a threat to its environment.

Please watch the video of a flame placed under a piece of Fire Retardant Plastic and Non Fire Retardant Plastic.

QUESTION: We are looking for a product that can be laid on a concrete slab to act as a vapor barrier between the concrete and the carpet we plan to put in our basement. Do you have a product that might work for this? We are probably looking at approx. 800 sq ft.  Do you know if there are any contra-indications to putting the vapor barrier on TOP of the concrete to separate it from the carpet pad.  It seems your products are used mostly between the ground and the concrete slab.

ANSWER: Any of our Vapor Barrier types of products can be used in this application over the concrete slab.  I would recommend the VaporBlock 20 Plus or the VaporBlock 6 Plus as two of the better ones, since they also block out radon, methane, and VOC's. Ideally, the liner should be sealed to the concrete floor using tape, or non-hardening polyurethane caulking, as close to the outside walls as possible.  The idea is to help direct any moisture that flows along the plane under the concrete to the outside walls, so it can dissipate to the outdoors if possible.  If this is not possible, and any moisture will be going into interior walls, they may want to stop a couple of inches short of the walls to keep from directing moisture up into the interiors of walls.

I give the VaporBlock 20 Plus my highest recommendation, even though it is more costly. I believe it is such a superior product over all the others, that it is worth the difference.  For this application, I would probably make the VaporBlock 6 Plus my next highest, even though it is pretty thin.  It still has the very tight cell structure, and could be doubled it if you wish.  Next, I would recommend the Crawlspace 1800, both because it is an excellent product, and because it has the least waste of any of the products stocked, since you are looking for 800 sq ft.

Question: Do you have an ice skating rink liner big and strong enough for our backyard rink?

Answer:    Many people used to call me the ice skating rink liner king of Southern California, a distinction I wore with pride for more than a decade in my last position.  After growing up in the Midwest, and enjoying countless hours of ice skating fun, I understood the frustrations of trying to successfully make a backyard rink on a budget.  My goal as a plastic sheeting professional has always been to provide effective one-piece ice skating rink liners to my customers, that they can re-use at least a time or two, at the lowest costs possible. It would not be a problem for us to get you the perfect liner for your rink!

Please contact us with the dimensions ideal for your rink, and we will be happy to quote the products we feel are the best we have available.  I appreciate the opportunity to be of assistance to you and your family in the pursuit of wholesome family fun.- Lee Hinsley-

Q.  I am looking for a vapor barrier- something that is stronger than a 6-8 mil poly for our crawl space. What do you recommend?
A.    We supply a large quantity of liners specially designed for the crawlspace and basement industry.  All of them have at least one white side, so the space becomes nice and bright, and things like spiders are easily seen if present.  The liners that are most popular are in the 12, 18, and 20 mil range.  All of these are extrusion laminated polyethylene sheeting products, with reinforcement layers.  The "extrusion lamination" means the layers of the product are joined together using molten polyethylene to form a single product that will never come apart.  Using multiple layers allows us to use some very strong types of polyethylene, plus some excellent barrier films to create a product that is much stronger, and has lower perm rates than one can achieve with a mono-layer liner (liner all made in one single layer).   With any of these sheeting products, one can crawl around with little worry about puncturing through the liner.  If you have sharp rocks underneath, then I would recommend the 18 or 20 mil products.

Our most popular products for this application are Dura Skrim 12WB, 12 mil, 12' x 100', and 6.167' x 100' rolls, Dura Skrim R20WW, 20 mil, 12' x 100', and Crawlspace 1800, 18 mil, 12' x 100' and 20' x 50'.  All of these products are normally in stock for immediate shipment.

We also provide the two types of tape commonly used in this application.  The first is Vapor Bond Tape, a seaming tape 4" x 210', designed to permanently bond the sheeting together wherever seams are needed, and to help seal around protrusions as the outer layer of protection.  Second is Butyl Seal Tape, a very aggressive double-sided tape designed to seal between concrete or other substances, and the plastic sheeting.  It can also be used between overlapped layers of plastic sheeting as a very strong barrier to moisture ever coming through.  This tape remains permanently soft and flexible.  Where the top of the plastic sheeting ends at the wall (preferably above ground level) we recommend mechanically fastening the material, through both the plastic and the butyl tape using either push in fasteners, or batten strips.

We are having our office painted, and want to protect the carpeting. Are you sure your Carpet Plastic won't damage our carpets?

A: We are SURE! Hundreds of millions of square feet of this product have been used over the past 30 years, and not once have we ever experienced this phenomenon. A word of caution though, we do recommend that all carpeting in an area where work is being done is covered. For instance, if drywall work is done, and only part of the carpet is covered, the carpeting left uncovered will almost always look lighter than the carpet that was covered, because of the drywall dust (and potentially paint overspray). Not all carpet protection films are created equal. There are imported products on the market, using solvent-based adhesive, that when not manufactured perfectly, will turn carpets permanently pink, green or orange.

I was recently asked if black polyethylene burned hotter than clear polyethylene.  I thought this was both a very good question, and kind of interesting.  Pretty sure I knew the correct answer, I decided to contact a couple of engineers in the polyethylene industry to confirm my suspicions.  Since carbon black is the substance used to make black polyethylene black in color, and making black poly Fire Retardant is the most difficult of all the colors, one might just think that black polyethylene burns hotter than clear or other colors.  According to a Sr. Engineer with Raven Industries -The truth is that the color additives, including the carbon black do not affect the burning temperatures of the poly.  I doubt we will get this one on Mythbusters any time soon, but still feel like this was a worthwhile question, with a bit of a surprise answer. By Lee Hinsley

Question:  What are all the classifications of plastic?

Answer:  Polyethylene is classified into several different categories based mostly on its density and branching.

• Ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE)
• Ultra low molecular weight polyethylene (ULMWPE or PE-WAX)
• High molecular weight polyethylene (HMWPE)
• High density polyethylene (HDPE)
• High density cross-linked polyethylene (HDXLPE)
• Cross-linked polyethylene (PEX or XLPE)
• Medium density polyethylene (MDPE)
• Linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE)
• Low density polyethylene (LDPE)
• Very low density polyethylene (VLDPE)

Question from a Project Manager:

Last week I received a question from a project manager that I thought might be helpful to others.  I have known this gentleman for a while, since we share a love of boating.  He knows that one of our specialties is providing state of the art surface protection products into a number of industries, so he asked me what he can do in the future to avoid the following wood floor installation nightmare.

On one of his projects, a remodel in a 4 year old 1.6 million dollar home, they replaced the flooring in the lower level of the home with an engineered flooring product with a metal base containing what I can best describe as a thin layer of hardwood.  This floor was designed for fast and easy installation with an interlocking system, with all the good looks of a finished in place hardwood floor.  The designer had picked it out, and the flooring was $35,000, plus installation.

The floor went in easily, but several other trades had things to do that required their walking on the floor after its installation.  As the project manager, he had acquired red rosin paper, as recommended by the supplier of the flooring.  This was done during rainy times, so the paper got wet and torn up, and sections had to be replaced a number of times.  When the other trades were done, and the paper removed, it appeared that a lot of small pieces of sand or gravel had gotten under the paper somehow, and had caused quite a lot of dents, dings, and scratches in the floor (very dark, almost black finish over a light wood, so they really showed up well).  The customer was understandably VERY upset about this, and wanted it fixed.  At significant expense, the flooring company was brought in to repair the damage, which required sanding and refinishing the entire floor (after baseboards and other items were once again removed).  Finally, the floor looked perfect, but there was no longer any profit left in the job for my friend's company, who had to absorb this cost of refinishing.

Then the customer received all of the paperwork on the floor, and found out it could only be re-finished two times, then the entire floor must be replaced.  Once again, the customer was MOST unhappy, and demanded that they receive a new floor with its full lifespan.  No way in the world they wer going to get stuck with a floor that could only be refinished one more time when they had just spent all of this money.  After much ado, many threats, the involvement of legal folks, and similar ugliness, my project manager's company had to pay to have the floor replaced in this home.  He would not divulge how much money they lost on this project, but stated it was more than they made on the three previous projects, so was quite a hit to their bottom line.

My recommendation would have been to use a product called Padded Floor Plastic from Global Plastic Sheeting.  This material is lightly self-adhesive, so it stays in place on the flooring, won't scoot around or abrade the floor.  Because it is lightly adhered to the floor, things should not have any opportunity to get under the covering and move around as was the case with the paper.  The padding also helps keep the floor from being damaged, as this product is 80 mils thick.  The top layer of the Padded Floor Plastic has polyethylene, so the rain would not have damaged the covering, and could have been wiped or mopped up easily with no damage to the flooring.  The initial cost for this product is several times the cost of the red rosin paper, but it is also re-usable, so may be less actual product cost after a few projects.  The big difference is in the cost caused by the damage.  The cost of this products would have been borne by the customer had it been used in the first place.  All of the costs associated with the damaged flooring were borne by the contractor.  I told him that had they given this customer the option of using the cheaper red rosin paper, and being responsible for any damage that might be caused, or paying a little more for an appropriate covering, and having the contractor be responsible for any damage, I would bet that they would have very few customers choosing the red rosin paper.

You might want to consider this for your next project, especially if using any of the engineered products with limited times they can be sanded and resinished.